Welcome to 5 Quick Things that I saw since last month that I thought were interesting enough to share with you. None of them are particularly timely so feel free to just enjoy 🙂

>Number One<

Naughty Words (visualized)

If you ever wondered all the ways to euphemistically talk about sex in English…well have I got a timeline for you. Lexicographer Jonathon Green actually has about a half dozen of slang timelines listed including ones on slang for pubs, alcohol, and even mental instability. Very cool stuff.

>Number Two<

Probably the Future

The Things We Lost in The Flood is a little experimental indie game that is quiet, strange, and meditative. A “pay what you want” interactive experience that will make you wonder about humanity in good and bad ways. There are some goals in the game but mostly you float around reading messages from other players and making some of your own, exploring what there is left when there is nothing left.

>Number Three<

The Hammer is my unexamined duality of narratives

It’s been just over 10 years since Dr.Horrible’s Sing A Long Blog debuted and like all things Jomps Whobin / Joss Whedon related it’s very much a mixed bag. In this fantastic video SarahZ breaks down some of the very confused messages and baggage that this (catchy and thrilling) webblog musical left us to decipher so many years ago.

>Number Four<

Since we’re all freaking out about tech…

This article is actually the first in a larger series about the companies that dominate the internet, but also, our real lives. Since we just passed Prime Day and we’re all freaking out about letting apps on our phones have permissions it’s basically the absolute perfect time to remind you that you rely on many of these companies and systems, sometimes without even knowing it and worse yet, even if you avoid these specific big name companies and sites they have end up with access to your data, affecting your life, and profiting off you. This isn’t to be scary or hyperbolic, just something to be aware of. Her end conclusion is basically that to live and function in any meaningful way in the modern world it’s just not possible to stop interaction with these companies and turning back to the old methods of analog replacements of these technologies no longer works – those systems aren’t just obsolete, sometimes they’re now completely cancelled or disabled. It’s really interesting as a whole but even if you just read the Amazon article by itself you’ll get a taste for it.

>Number Five<

A Copy of a Copy of a Copy

You ever hear a song and it sounds like something you thoughts you know? Or you listen to a really good track and wonder if anyone has made a remix or sampled it: that’s exactly what Who Sampled is for. It does just what it says on the tin and if you’re like me, you’ll probably Shazam something and then immediately head to this website to figure out what its sampling and it’ll make you go “Yes! That’s exactly it!” (and isn’t that a wonderful feeling?)

Anyway, that’s all for now, see you next month!